PLANTING TIME
Wednesday Nov. 28, 2018
Things come back to us.
Not like thrown-away boomerangs. Sometimes a peculiar flight path. Sometimes to haunt us, sometimes to amaze us, sometimes as a marvelous mystery (see below for an example).
So often, especially with those of us (higher percentage than you might expect) who sell for a living, the activity of doing, giving and sharing freely of ourselves, giving things away, giving help whether it is asked for or not is antithetical to how we were schooled and trained in sales.
However we ‘became’ a go-getter, we must all change our thinking to being go-givers.
Not just to succeed in business or career, but to succeed in life. To be better human beings. If we ‘give of ourselves’ with expectation of earning a return we are foolishly only viewing the surface of life – a short-sighted view at that.
What we give comes back to us. Not on any timetable or way we might expect – but how it comes back will be a direct reflection of the spirit in which it was given.
It’s a non-conditional thing. Offer without requirement of acceptance – you are giving something of value, some thing, some words, some support … something to someone in the spirit of lifting them, helping them and being there for them. Don’t do it because it might pay off. Don’t pay-it-forward because all things go round and come back. Do it for different reasons.
Do it because it feels good. Do it because it is good. Do it because it might help someone somehow someday. Chances are good you’ll do more good than you realize, get recognized for or know about. That’s OK, because that isn’t why you are doing it, right?
Do because you can, because you know how and because someone will benefit from it.
What have you given today?
No worries, it’s early in the day – but consider asking yourself this question every morning: did I help anyone yesterday, did I give someone something of value yesterday? If you must rationalize your efforts as having some form of payback or revenue, think of it like a farmer. The farmer can never harvest a crop if they didn’t first plant seeds, then tend the crop while it grew. One day it is harvest day, and you reap the rewards of what you sowed long ago. Or not. The best farmers have crop failures from time to time. But the farmer who never plants never harvests.
** this note came in on Monday morning – it blew me away: Hello there, I needed to reach out because there has been something that’s happened that doesn’t seem like a coincidence to me. My dad loved mentors and coaches. He was always trying to better himself and his business. He found out he had to go in for emergency aortic aneurysm surgery on Friday October 12 and the surgery was scheduled for the morning of Monday October 15, 2018.That morning was the first time I ever received the e-mail “MONDAY MORNING MINUTE” and I didn’t think anything of it at the time. My dad was 61. He was supposed to survive the surgery. But something went wrong and he spent 15 hours in surgery instead of seven. He fought hard in ICU but passed away that Friday. I’m heartbroken. It’s taken me over a month of MONDAY MORNING MINUTE showing up in my inbox to really look at it and figure out when it started. It started right around the last time I ever saw my dad alive and conscious. That Monday morning. My dad was my best friend. My whole family has been absolutely devastated by his loss. I just need to know where these e-mails come from and also, I wonder if he signed me up….because that’s something he would do. I sit here writing this in tears. I now love receiving and reading through my Monday morning minute every Monday, coincidence or not.
Reader feedback:
I HAVE A CHANCE
You are absolutely right – change is hard and sometimes it sucks. And recognizing I can only change me is the starting point. It’s one minute, one hour, one day at a time. It’s perseverance or as some might call it stubbornness. It’s not about anyone else! I can’t change them. I can only change my reaction to them. It’s about choices and making the right ones, the right ones for me! This column came at a pivotal point for me. It’s now printed and on my wall by my desk! Thank you for reinforcing my decision today. Keep ‘em coming Mark!, HC, Sherwood Park, AB
